A Study in Secrecy
by Serenity2012
Summary: Ginny tries to act calm for her friend, Stacey, but really she's freaking out! How else is she supposed to handle History of Magic class when Harry Potter is the guest speaker and Debra Souter's favorite subject?


Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter.

Ginny hurried to her seat in History of Magic and opened up her textbook.

"Since when did you get so interested in the Goblin Rebellions?" Stacey asked, sliding the strap of her book-bag over the back of her chair before sinking down next to Ginny.

"I'm not." She rolled her eyes, but her mind raced to come up with an excuse, "I just didn't want to force myself to watch _that._" She nodded in the direction of Debra Souter and her friends, Hogwarts' high society, who were acting out a scene from a movie it seemed like. Their laughter was a strange gas filling up the room, and there was lots of excess hair flipping. Ginny had a sneaking suspicion who the show was for…

Stacey shrugged it off, "They'll have to quiet down once class starts. I can't believe Harry Potter's going to be our guest speaker!" She took out a piece of parchment and a quill and started doodling pictures of the Ravenclaw eagle.

Ginny studied her carefully, "He won't like it if you treat him like some storybook hero. He's eighteen. Two years ago he was going to this school!"

"Well, yeah." She added details to the feathers, "But it's not like I ever talked to him."

"You could have if you wanted to."

"Whatever." Stacey huffed, reaching for some ink.

She worked quietly for a few minutes, but when she did speak again, it was with a more careful tone, "It's not going to be awkward for you, is it? I mean I know Harry spent Christmas with your family, but considering that you were together and then broke up-"

Ginny smiled down towards her lap. She hated that she had to lie to Stacey, but she really wasn't ready to share how she was feeling with anyone. "Look," she declared, "Don't worry about me. Harry was really good at teaching the D.A and I'm sure he'll have lots to tell us about the Second Wizarding War."

"If you're sure…." She glanced away.

Suddenly Ginny noticed a change in the level of chatter going on behind her. She spun around to get her first look at Harry in days.

His hair had been cut short, probably thanks to her mum, but she had kept the fringe in front that helped cover his scar. He seemed nervous, but since he wasn't being asked to slay any incredible beast or rescue people in distress, _just talk to some teenagers,_ of course that's when he'd feel the need to run.

"Hey Gin," he said, earnestly.

"Harry!" she greeted back, hating that she couldn't grab his hand now. Her book stayed covering her arm. "I bet you've been missing this place."

"Of course. Hogwarts was my home for so long," he sounded wistful. "Although there are some things I miss even more than others…."

Ginny's brown eyes widened appreciatively. She was just about to respond when Debra danced her way over to their side of the room and tugged at Harry's elbow. "It's such an honor to have you here, Mr. Potter!"

Harry squirmed uncomfortably, "Please, let's make do without titles." He talked louder, so that the other kids in class could hear him, "Everybody just call me Harry, alright?"

"_Harry,_" Debra purred, but he had already slipped through her grasp and was setting his things on the teacher's desk.

Ginny was right about the lesson being interesting. First, Harry explained something of Voldemort's history: "It would definitely be rough growing up in an orphanage, but that's no excuse for how Riddle behaved…. All his talk of blood-purity was a farce. He was a half-blood, for Merlin's sake…! He thought he had something to gain by murdering Muggleborns, but see, he was really losing touch with himself. Each assassination ripped his soul apart; he was just a shadow of a man." Then he did a spell over his Pensive that projected some of his memories of the Final Battle onto the walls and ceiling. His speech became hoarse as he talked about all the people who died in the struggle to create a better world.

Ginny's eyes grew bright with unshed tears every time she glimpsed Fred. She was ashamed to admit she had forgotten the brilliant quality of his smile.

"Yes, well," Harry finally rasped, "We should probably wrap things up…. We've got five minutes until the class change." After the pictures flickered and disappeared, Harry was left staring at the students, uncertainly. "Are there any questions?"

Debra raised her hand, wiggling her perfectly manicured fingers, to give Harry a flirty wave.

He glanced at Ginny, who, for some reason, was turning purple. "What is it?" he asked, eyes only turning to the other girl when the last syllable had slipped from his lips.

"We have lunch next period, _Harry,_" she emphasized his name like it was something special between them. "Belinda, Tessa, and I would all really love it if you sat with us; continue your fascinating lecture, maybe." She leaned forward, excitedly. There was no real doubt in her mind that he would accept, and as long as last week's boyfriend, Jeremy, wasn't hovering around, the date would go off without a hitch.

What got said next brought the whole world crashing around her ears.

"Sorry, no. I've got plans to spend the rest of the day with my… girlfriend." Muttering broke out everywhere, but Harry pretended not to notice it.

"But-"

Harry raised one eyebrow.

"There's nothing about a girlfriend in the tabloids!" She pulled several magazines out of her purse that featured grimacing pictures of Harry on the cover. The multiple creases in the laminated paper proved that this was the only reading material she ever studied seriously.

"Thank the gods! One of my greatest accomplishments has been keeping my personal life out of the press as much as possible." Ginny admired the ringing fervor in his voice, as he stood up to his full height and called Debra out. _It's about time someone showed that witch._

The silence that followed was impressive, but finally the bell rang. Stacey said good-bye to Ginny and ran to join her fellow Ravenclaws in the Great Hall, leaving her and Debra the last two stragglers in the class. They seemed to have the same idea about lingering behind. They re-stacked their already perfect set of books, threw away some papers and shook their bottles of ink, until Tessa Morgan peeked around the door, "Come on, Deb. If we eat quickly, we can go watch the guys flying around the Quidditch pitch."

She shot her friend a pointed glare, before pulling herself together, "Right, of course. Ginny-" she gritted her teeth, "Shouldn't you be heading out too? Harry said he had other things to do and I'm sure he doesn't want you hovering around."

"I'm really getting tired of you…" Harry started to say, but was cut off when Ginny slammed her text-book closed, grabbed her wand, and postured it two inches from Debra's nose.

Debra went cross-eyed staring down the length of wood, which ended in a beautiful ruby with a spider-web of gold splayed across it. _Wait, that's not part of the wand. _There was a band wrapped around the fourth finger of Ginny's left hand, almost like a… ring.

"You're- that's- engaged… to him?" She was spluttering a lot of nonsense, but a look of realization dawned on Ginny's face to be replaced by a smirk.

"Oops Harry. I guess the secret's out."

The corners of his mouth twitched, as he tried and failed to look stern, "You could have at least waited until I'd told your family. I'd hate to see Bill plastering Undersirable #1 posters up everywhere and Ron can be right scary when he wants to."

"Just jinx them _back_," Ginny said exasperated, "You taught Ron all the curses he knows anyways."

"Oh, and you don't see how we could end up with a very Romeo and Juliet situation on our hands," he quirked, hands shoved down the pockets of his jeans.

"You come back every time you die," she couldn't help but point out.

"What happens when I reach my limit?" Harry loved bantering with her, but the sound of fast-moving high heels snapped him back to reality. Tessa had left in a hurry, possibly to assign the gossip girls their section of the castle.

Debra's knees were turned curiously inward, like she was going to fall over any minute, "Even if you are dating someone, it can't be her, not _Ginny._ You dumped her after Dumbledore's funeral. The _whole school_ was talking about it."

Ginny winced at the painful memory, and Harry put a soothing arm around her shoulder. "Noble prat," she muttered under her breath, while hitting him lightly.

"We got back together," she said simply to Debra, "After Lord Voldyshorts died. Just because we don't announce our relationship to the world doesn't mean we don't still have one. And he proposed just a few days ago, on Christmas." Her ring winked in the light slanting through the windows, as if to prove her point.

"How could you not have told? He's-" her voice dropped, "Harry Potter. You could be famous drinking at the same coffee shop as him!"

Ginny jabbed Debra's nose sharply with the wand, "This is why we aren't friends." She prowled closer to the other girl, who jumped back a few steps, "I'm not interested in looking good for the presses, for my friends, for anybody! I love Harry because of his heart and it has nothing to do with how many times he makes the Most Eligible Bachelors list in Witch Weekly!"

"If I remember correctly, you yelled at me for an hour about it, actually," Harry said, pulling on his ear.

She rounded on him, "As if we needed more girls mailing you their picture!" Ginny was seething at this point, sending off blue sparks that fell like fireworks down to the ground.

Harry considered his options. Then he carefully maneuvered her around Debra, and out of the classroom, saying "Weren't we supposed to visit George at the new shop in Hogsmeade?" as soothingly as possible.

Debra heard the door close behind them with a click, but she just stood there, motionlessly, while the seconds ticked by. Some of her wildest imaginings had involved the famous Boy-who-Lived rescuing her from an untimely death, but she never, _never_ thought it would be in the form of steering away his angry girlfriend. It was like the dream had turned into a nightmare.

Author's Notes- I've been sitting on this for a while, trying it out from different POV's, so I really hope you like how it turned out. As always, REVIEW!


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